The Complete Ro-Busters

Writers: Pat Mills and Alan Moore

Illustrators: Kevin O'Neill, Dave Gibbons, Mike McMahon and Mike Dorey

Publisher: 2000AD - Rebellion

Back at the Bristol Comic Expo I was able to pick this book up for £10 and it was pretty much the only book I came looking for at the show. The book had been recommended to me by quite a few people all of whom seemed to hold the book is very high regard. The only character I knew of from the series was one of the main characters called Hammerstein. Back in the 90s when I had been reading 2000ad Hammerstein had been featured in a strip called A.B.C. Warriors, which I remembered enjoying.

Moving on to Ro-Busters when I first opened the book I was expecting to see the character Hammerstein but in this book he looked vastly different from how I remembered him. Any way the series is about two robots called Hammerstein and Ro-Jaws who are old robots waiting to be sold at a second hand used robots lot. Essentially Hammerstein and Ro-Jaws are C3PO(But double hard and has a back bone) and R2D2 (Except a lot more offensive and twisted) and they are brought by a cyborg called Mr Ten Percent, who then inducts them in to his rescue team Ro-Busters. Which is very similar to Gerry Andersons Thunderbirds. Ro-busters is a collection of old robots that are deployed to emergencies all over the world and a lot of the time most of the supporting are killed as soon as they are introduced.
Through out the book MR Ten Percent seems adamant to see the destruction Hammerstein and Ro-Jaws in each story although luckily they seem to escape destruction every time. The book follows there adventures through out with the exception of one story which features a division of Ro-Busters called the Terra-Meks, where for a change the Ro-Busters are actually the bad guys and are taken on by a gigantic robot called Charley defender of the people. Whilst this story is good, I do not want to talk about to much as a lot of other reviews seem to focus quite a lot in this story.

Through out the book the one character who I thought was fantastic and I undoubtedly now have a Robot-Crush on is Ro-Jaws. Never in my life have I read a character who is so offensive yet attempts to be charming at the same time. As soon as I saw him up to something in one of the stories, I could always tell its going to end badly! Ro-Jaws is with out a doubt the ugliest, most offensive but funny character that I have read about in years.

I really enjoyed reading this book and was glad that there is only 1 volume collecting the stories as it is with out a doubt one of the best omnibus/collections that I have on my shelves. I would even be willing to say it's probably the best 2000ad collection I have read yet. The stories were easy to follow and understand and I know I'm new to Pat Mills writing but I really enjoyed his story telling. The pacing of the stories was great and I really felt that the characters were developing through out the book. The first few stories in the book were very short but as the stories progress there is more of a back story being built up. The Artwork in the book is great but with the creative talent involved its not a shock. Although I'm sure at the time the comics were originally produced none of the artists knew that their work would be collected in a massive collection. Also I am sure each artist makes poor Ro-Jaws uglier when ever they came onto the book.

A great book and a real investment. If you have not checked out this volume yet then you really should as it really offers a great collection of comic strips by a lot of now well known creators and two of the best characters I have ever been introduced too.

Judge Dredd VS Aliens

Writers: John Wagner & Andy Diggle
Artist: Henry Flint
Publisher: 2000AD - Rebellion

I am not and never will be a big fan of crossover books. Back when I was a teenager I loved them and thought they were great. There was Aliens VS Predator, Robocop VS Terminator, Marvel VS DC and the weirdest one of all Punisher and Archie. I thought they were great cause they were over the top and featured battles comic fans had always wanted to see and always out of continuity. Truth be told though, when ever I look back at some of these crossovers, they just don't stand the test of time. A lot of the time they feature a plot that could of been conceived by a 4 year old and the artists who work on the books don't always appear to be putting in a lot of effort. There has been a couple of notable exceptions though, the first Aliens VS Predator book is very entertaining and even reading it some 20 years after it was first published, it still reads really well. The second crossover book that stands out as really well done is Wild C.A.T.S. VS Aliens, which is about a superhero team (Storm watch) being wiped out by the Aliens on a space station, with another team of superheroes(Wild C.A.T.S.) attempting to rescue any survivors. By the end of the issue Storm Watch are pretty much dead and the story actually happened in continuity, which had hardly ever been done at that point. This then lead to the launch of the Authority but that's a review for another time.

My biggest problems with crossovers now though is the fact the suffer from poor characterisation. Take any Aliens crossover and I guarantee who ever is writing it will try and emulate the story of James Cameron's Aliens and the Aliens essentially become redundant and in effect are no longer the terrifying presence they once were.
It's a shame but it just seems that the Aliens are used to make other characters they are crossing over with look more heroic and the aliens seem to be so easily defeated from then on.I remember the first time I saw Ridley Scott's Alien and I was truly terrified that of it. In the film there is one Alien and it slowly annihilates the crew of the Nostromo, the spaceship that it is on. Eventually the Alien is defeated but only after 90% of the crew are killed and one woman (and her cat) are left. Aliens the sequel is just as good but the horror genre takes second place to make way for a more action based story. Whilst it is a good story it has been copied and referenced so many times that I can no longer be bothered to read comic with Aliens in it as I know it is going to be a carbon copy of the film.

Until now. Recently I had been speaking to the hosts of "It all comes back to 2000AD" podcast and Flint one of the presenters had recommended Judge Dredd VS Aliens as it was a crossover that actually happened in continuity. So recently I picked it up to read and I was dubious to see what it had to offer.

The story starts of with a odd looking guy doing a runner from his car in a traffic jam and soon enough it becomes painfully obvious that this guy has an Alien inside him. Luckily for him, he near a hospital and whilst trying to treat him the Alien bursts through his chest and escapes into the Hospitals air vent system. Soon enough it becomes clear that the Alien is a very big and real threat to all in the hospital. Whilst this is going on Judge Dredd and a team of other judges engage another Alien and it does not take long for Dredd to realise these Aliens and incredibly lethal but only after a Judge is impregnated by a Face-huger(part of the Aliens evolutionary process)and few other Judges are severely wounded and killed.
The first part of the book is about the Judges encountering the Aliens and trying to come up with a way to exterminate them with out injuring or killing any one. It takes Judge Dredd a gargantuan effort just to defeat one of them!The Second Part of the book deals discovering where the Aliens came from and to ensure they don't overrun the Mega City One. Whilst discussing what they should do the Hall of Justice (Judge's headquarters) is invaded from the Undercity below and the all out war breaks out between the Judges and the Aliens. The Judges are struggling to to beat the Aliens and the quick thinking of Judge Giant helps turn the tide by using Mechanismo Droids (Robot Judges) to fight the Aliens so there is no more casualties. Its not long before the Aliens are returning to the Undercity but they have also taken the young Judge Sanchez and Dredd goes after her only to be captured by the Aliens. It's not long until to we see Judges Dredd and Sanchez again, but this time they have been impregnated. How will it all end?
I went into this book being very weary of what the story was like but I am quite pleased to say, it's probably the best Crossover book that I have read in years, if not the best all round. The Aliens in the book really are scary and through out the book I really did doubt whether some of the established characters would actually make it through the story. Even when Judge Dredd was infected I really did wonder if he would make it to the end of the book. I really like the fact that although the Judges did have weapons they had to be careful using the them otherwise they would be splashed with the Alien's acidic blood. This book was extremely well written and illustrated, both the Judges and the Aliens characterisation was spot on in my opinion. Even if no one has read a Judge Dredd or Aliens story before, they could read this book and get a very good indication of what both Characters are like, so if your dyslexic and want to check this out go for it.

A very good read and the best Judge Dredd story i've read since The Pit. Worth the read and every penny!

Does everything come back to 2000AD?

This year I have rediscovered my appreciation for 2000AD. It also seems that there are quite a few other people who are getting back into the comic. The reason I have got back into 2000AD is because I have been reading quite a few of the trade paperback collections, most notably the Strontium Dog Case files and Judge Dredd: The Pit. I had never read the early stories of Strontium Dog and The Pit story I read back when I was 15 and after a good 12 years I think the story still holds up very well. Also Since August 2008 I have been purchasing the Judge Dredd Megazine every month. The Megazine (That's not a typo) is out once a month and comes with a free "Graphic Novel"(it's a comic) each issue. Whenever I pick up an issue it always takes me a couple of days to read it as there is a lot of interesting comic strips and articles in it.

With reading the collections and the megazine I have been kinda curious to check out more collections of older material as well as the current issues of 2000AD. To top it off there has also been a new 2000AD podcast that has been released by Richard McAuliffe and Steven Reid which is quite entertaining and incredibly informative.

So 2 weeks ago I picked up 2000AD for the first time in a while and so far I am enjoyin it quite a lot. The first issue, sorry I mean Prog I picked up was 1633 Which featured strips of Judge Dredd, Savage 1984, Zombo,Nikolai Dante and a new story called Cradlegrave. With the exception of Cradlegrave which started this issue, all of the other strips had started in previous strips were fairly easy to get into.Prog 1634 featured more of the same strips and was still entertaing.The Nikolai Dante strip wraped up this prog and this means there will a new strip in the next week. The quality of the strips is really good and even though I feel like I have come in the middle of some of the stories they are very easy to follow, as there are summaries to each story at the start of each prog.

Prog 1635 features a new comic strip staring Slaine called the Gong Beater. I really dont know much about the character but it's written by Pat Mills and features the superb artwork by Clint Langley.
Out of all the strips in the Prog's I felt that the Judge Dredd stories were the weakest, which is a shame. My favourite strip so far has to be Savage:1984 which features a character similar to the Punisher taking on Invading forces in the UK. It seems that some sort of bomb has wiped out most of the technology, similar to a EMP. Cradlegrave seems like it could be an interesting story although I think it's to early to tell as so far not much has happened. Zombo Seems to be a horror story that features a Zombie that can be controled and used to protect people. It reminds me a bit of Doctor Who really, where I spend half the time working out which character will be killed off next.
All in all I am really enjoying reading 2000AD again and I cant wait to see how a few of the strips develop. With my dyslexia, it does make reading some strips difficult cause there is a lot going on in each issue, but the summaries at the start of each issue are a great help and makes it easy to follow. I think I will stick with 2000AD for the foreseeable future and I have a massive stack of 200oAD trades to get through.

So if you have not read an issue of 2000AD recently, it might be worth picking it up again. Does everything come back to 2000AD? Ultimately yes it does.

The Cottage Part 1

The Cottage

October 1987

I’m 7 years old and we had just moved to Lower Newport Road. It’s our first house that we actually own, prior to that we had lived all over the country as my old man was a lifer in the Army and we lived in all manner of army quarters. Lower Newport Road however was the place I will always call home.

It was a quiet road and located quite closely to my school. Strangely enough though at the end of Lower Newport Road there was a closed down Milk Dairy which had recently been purchased by a housing company and more houses were going too built there. Next to the dairy though, there was a very old cottage. It was called Malt house Cottage and no one had lived in it for years.

The first time I saw Malt house cottage I thought it was incredibly freaky, but the first time I went actually close to it, I nearly shit my pants. There were loads of bushes and over grown trees, a disused car or two and a massive padlock on the front door. The reason however that I nearly shit my pants was because when I went to get a closer a look at the cottage, I had opened the large rusted gate and was walking to the cottage when I heard a loud slam from the back of the house. I quickly turned around ready to pelt it down to my house, when I ran in to him.

He was built like a brick shit house and looked like Magnum P.I crossed with Geoff Capes, oh and he never spoke. His face was emotionless and unmoving and at the moment I ran into him, he didn’t even flinch. At first I thought he lived in the cottage and that he was going to beat the living shit out of me for going in the garden, but as it turns out I was wrong. He picked me up by my parker jacket hood and dragged me from the garden; he closed the gate behind him and then pointed in the direction of my home. Not once did he speak to me, he only made brief eye contact with me and in that moment I knew I never ever in my short life wanted to cross that man, as I was fairly sure any confrontation with him would end me being wiped off the planet.

I ran straight back to my house and when I got there I turned around to see the Magnum P.I’s bigger meaner brother standing in the same spot where ran away from. He was just staring at the cottage motionless. He was looking up at one of the windows at top of the cottage and for the briefest of moments I thought I could see movement behind the window but I can be sure as I was so far away.

I knew then, that no matter what my fate was tied to Magnum P.I’s and that cottage. I just didn’t realise how bad thing were going to get from that point onwards.

To be continued

Bristol Comic Expo Sketches

Whilst at the show I was able to get a few sketches from a few artists and I thought I would post them up here so people can see them.

Judge Dredd by John Higgins

Jeremiah West by Tim Keable

Optimus Prime by Jimmy Bott

Bristol Comic Expo Day 2

The final day of the of the comic expo is usually a day where everyone from fans to creators are severly hung over and every one seems to be walking around in daze. This year was no different, I myself felt physically shattered as prior to traveling down to Bristol, the day before I had flown back from Malta and did not get back till very late(not to mention I was habouring a hang over from hell, as the night befor flying I had been out drinking with my dad and a couple of his mates) and did not get much sleep. So this sunday I was shattered and wanted to visit the con to pick up the last few comics and trades I wanted to pick up.

After breakfast I headed over to the expo hall and headed straight to the 2000AD table where I picked up 3 trades for the bargin price of £25! I wont revel what trades I picked up , but I will review them on here very soon! Next I picked a few cheap comics from a few stands and then I went to the Com.X stand where I picked up a RazorJack by John Higgins and I was lucky enough to get a free sketch from John of Judge Dredd, Which was a nice suprise!

After this I had to head back to my hotel to check out and load up my suitecase (Ive learnt over the years its easier to take a case and load that up with comic rather than hundreds of bags!) with all of my purchases and headed back the expo, where I spent some time sitting in the bar (not drinking) just looking through my stuff and generally relaxing. I was also lucky enough to get a given a gift which was the Self Made Hero edition of Sherlock Holmes, which looks to be a great read.

And that was about it for my weekend. I went to the show to go and find lots of new and interesting comics and trades and stuck to my budget through out. Although this years show was a lot smaller, I still really enjoyed it. I do think the saturday was the better day in my opinion. The small press expo part of the show was with out a doubt a lot my enjoyable and better set up. There were a lot of stalls with a lot of interesting products and its a shame it was not set up on both days of the weekend.

All in all I really enjoyed the expo and it was worth going.

Bristol Comic Expo Day 1 Continued

I really wanted to post this up yesterday but sadly I was way tobusy to do so. When I arrived at the venue I found a que outside the building which did not take long to get through. When I entered the show,it was quite shocking to see how small it was to previous years. Although the entire show was spread out between 2 venues. The I was first at seemed to feature all the well known artists and a lot of stalls selling goods. Stalls that were worthy of note would have to be the Cinebook stand and the 2000ad stand, both of which had amazing deals on their books. Over in the other venue there was a lot of indie comic creators, all of which wanted people to buy their comics. Some were as always a bit to pushy whilst others seemed to very pleased and willing to help if I enquired about their comics/products.

Also there were a few panels through out the day too and I was able to attened a couple of these. The first being the DC Nation Panel which had Dan Didio and Bob Wayne asking members of the audience questions about the current state of DC Comics. The panel was very lively and Dan also informed every one at the panle that he was envious of me because I had brought a pint of beer into the panel, which was quite ammusing. The next panel I went to after this was the Two Drunk Guys in a panel, which was Geek Syndicate attempting to interview Dan Boultwood and Tony Lee, both of which were totally drunk and a lot of the panel made no sense what so ever.

After these panels I went back around both parts of the show a little more and was able to obtain a couple of sketches from Jimmy Bott, whose work I had previously seen in a original graphic novel called Half Dead from Marvel comics and the other sketch was from Tim Keable who is the artist of a comic he jointly creator on called West.

Not to long after this I spent the rest of the evening in the pub. Which is why im writing this early Sunday Morning!

Bristol Comic Expo Day 1

This weekend I am at the Bristol Comic Expo, which is bascially a big convention about comics for comic fans. There are lots of artists and writers who will be attending as well as lots of stalls selling and promoting what ever good they have. I first started coming to these type of events about 3 years ago and I have got to admit I enjoyed them at first but as time has gone on, the enthusiasm for me to attend has gone to an all time low. I used to book every thing super early and have it all sorted months in advance but now I just cant be bothered.

Dont get me wrong I love comics and I like the fact I now have friends who like reading comics too but it does not mean I wanna spend every moment with them! Thats not me being negative, it's just for 20 odd years I collected comics with out having friends who were into comics, so when it comes to looking/shopping about for stuff I can become a bit anti social. Also it's a concentration thing, if im trying to talk as well as look for comics I end up not thinking about what I am doing and end up forgetting.

Any way enough about me turning into a grumpy old fart, this weekend I am going to keep updating my blog letting people know how the show is going onand if there are any interesting news piece I can post about on here. There hopefully should be ome pics too. All this would not be possible with out my dad, who very kindly gave me his mostly new laptop as a gift for looking after my mother(and the house and cat) who spent most of the last week in hospital.

Any way check back later for updates through out the weekend!Unless your already here!

Viking Issue 1

Writer: Ivan Brandon
Illustrator and Colourist: Nic Klein
Publisher: Image Comics

A few months back I picked up the first trade paperback collection of Northlanders from DC/Vertigo comics. Northlanders is essentially about vikings and the Norse people. Whilst I mostly enjoy the book, I felt no desire too get the next trade as the books conclusion was lacking in my opinion. So when it was announced that Image comics were releasing their own similar viking themed(called Viking)comic in 2009, I thought I would give it a go as well.

Viking Issue 1's story revolves around 2 viking brothers who slaughter a band of men in order to make a name for them selves by stealing from those who are wealthy. As the story progresses we get to see more of the 2 brothers lives and how they are very different from one another. Egil is the more aggressive brother who would happily kill any and all who get in his path, whilst his brother Finn is a lot more wiser and thoughtful,his over confidence could be his undoing. Other characters who appear in the book are King Bram, who appears to be powerful, confident and willing to defend what is rightfully his and the character I would like to see more of Princess Annikki who seems to have a warriors spirit and willing to put others above her own protection.
Whilst at the moment I'm not sure how these characters stories will tie together , I can only guess.The final part of the first issue ends with a conflict, which could be possible to changing certain characters paths in the future.

In my opinion I really enjoyed this comic and really want to know more about all the characters with in. Whilst reading Northlanders there was only 1 real character I wanted to know about and by the end of the book I found out his fate, so for that reason I don't feel the need to read more. With 4 characters that I am interested in though I could see my enjoyment for this book carrying on for a while. I don't think for a second that all of the characters will be there by the time the story ends but I'm hopeful that more characters will be introduced that are just as interesting.

I thought the comic was well written although it did take me twice to read it and fully understand it. This is not a negative point, it just warranted two reads in order for my dyslexia to fully process every thing that was going on. What I also liked was the way the characters talked, I liked the fact that they swore in the comic but only when need and only by certain characters. Also whilst reading the comic, i felt that each character had their own unique voice and what I found especially moving was when Princess Annikki was confronted by the bear, I felt I could hear the tremble in her voice and although she was scared she did not one the bear to be executed for its natural curiosity. The artwork in the book is truly amazing and I love the fact that Image had made the comic over sized in order for the read to fully appreciate Nic Klein fabulous artwork. I honestly cant tell how he has produced the artwork, it looks to me like he has used a mixture of media in order to create the book. At times I can see parts Andy Kubert styled artwork mixed in with a bit of Jack Kirby and Roy Lichtenstein. I honestly feel that the artwork is an infusion of all three and yet it really is it's own style at the same time.

I really enjoyed Viking's and I will pick up the future issues. I think this comic will be a challenge with my dyslexia but its going to be worth it as I'm hoping the best is yet to come and its going to be enjoyable getting there.

Free Comic Book Day 2009

On Saturday 2nd May 2009 there is a promotion taking place in Comic shops around the world called Free Comic Book Day. For this day a lot of comic companies produce Free editions of their comics. Marvel, DC, Dark Horse,IDW and Image always release title and a lot of the time the material is exclusive and not just reprints. Whilst there is a plethora of titles being released I wanted to recommend a couple of books that have been released. I have read these 2 comics and out of all the FCBD comics released, these titles stood head and shoulders above the rest in my opinion.

Contract #1
Writer: Garan Madeiros
Artists: Kevin Sharpe, Rick Ketcham, Mark McKenna
Publisher: A First Salvo

The comic starts a character called Jessie Garrett going home and having a days rest from being mercenary and running her own Merc company, "The Stellar Rangers". She's gone home to see her dad however she ends up finding a stranger in her home who is a friend of her father and ends up giving him a recap of her life so far and revealing why she became a mercenary.

Now from the cover on the comic I expected the comic to have Jessie running around half naked through out the comic. The character appears to be drawn like a lot of comic "Bad Girls" but in all fairness there whilst there was a lot cleavage shots in the comic it really did not distract me from the story. I really enjoyed the story and wanted to know more about the characters in the comic. In some ways the comic really reminded me of a cartoon that used to be on in the summer holidays when I was a kid, called " The Galaxy Rangers".
The writing in the comic was easy to understand and a pleasure to read. The artwork through out the book was very dynamic and fast paced. I especially liked Kevin Sharpe artwork at the start of the book and would like see a lot more of his work in the future. A great introduction to a new character and I will be ordering the issues that have already been released.

The Stuff Of Legend
Writers: Mike Raicht and Brian Smith
Artist: Charles Paul Wilson III
Publisher: Th3Rd World Studios

This is with out a doubt my favourite FCBD Comic that I have read so far. The story follows a young boy is trying to get to sleep late one night, when all of a sudden The Boogeyman attacks the boy and his dog and kidnaps the boy and takes him into the dark world of the closet. What follows is the assembling of a small force of Toys who embark on a mission to rescue the young boy from the The Boogeyman and his army of long forgotten toys. The issue focuses on the boys abduction and the assembling of the toys who seek to rescue him.
I really enjoyed this comic. The writing was superb and easy to understand. I loved how each of the toys had their own character and all seemed to have their motivation for rescuing the boy. The artwork is truly spectacular and at times reminded me of Dave McKean in places. I honestly cant wait to order this comic and read the full story.
Prior to reading this I had no idea what the comic was about and I had never heard of Th3Rd World Studios. Now I know who they are, I will hopefully be checking out some of their other titles if they are of a similar standard to this.

So tomorrow go to you local comic shop and see if they are participating in FCBD and if they are pick up the 2 title above as you wont be disappointed.